​Quality of Information (Fake news and disinformation)

1-day course on assessing the quality and reliability of information from various (digital) sources

When is information reliable? How do you verify its quality? And how do you assign value to that information?
With this knowledge, you can make well-informed (policy) choices and decisions.

Information has never been so easy and fast to access. However, this explosion of information places high demands on its users—not only during the search and retrieval process but also during the evaluation stage. Because how can you tell if the data is accurate? Or which sources are trustworthy? Unfortunately, assessing quality is not always straightforward. In addition to factual accuracy, factors such as context, presentation, relevance, completeness, and reproducibility also play an important role.

Using unreliable, incomplete, outdated, incorrect, or biased information can lead to poor (policy) decisions and choices. With the right know-how, you can stay in control and reduce the impact of mis- and disinformation. This allows you to write advice, reports, presentations, communication materials, or other documents without being misled.

After completing the course, the participant will have the necessary knowledge, insights, and skills to responsibly acquire openly accessible information, assess its quality, and use it effectively.

 

The course is intended for information professionals, information specialists, library staff, advisors, and policy officers who want to support their organization in improving information quality or who regularly use openly accessible information (such as from the internet) in their work.

 

The course covers the following topics:

• • Definitions of information quality

  • The origin of information

  • Information and media literacy

  • Information evaluation

  • Misinformation and disinformation

  • Practical tools and approaches

  • Work methods in information processing